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chimeric figure

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A figure of speech that combines incompatible or fantastical traits, blending animal, human, or mythical features; in poetry, it creates surreal imagery, defies logic, and expands imaginative possibility.

Detailed Definition
A chimeric figure is a poetic persona or image that combines incongruous elements—human/animal, past/future, sacred/profane—into a composite symbol of transformation or paradox; drawing on mythological chimera, this figure embodies cultural hybridity or psychological complexity, as in Plath’s beekeeper merging apiarist and martyr into a single fraught identity.
Example
Example in poetry:
Chimeric figure combines mythical creatures in metaphor: “Her voice was sphinx and siren” (hypothetical); in Anne Carson’s “Autobiography of Red,” Geryon is a chimeric figure; contemporary eco-poetry uses chimeric figure for climate monsters (“plastic kraken”); the device appears in surrealist and feminist verse; chimeric figure symbolizes complexity and transformation
Additional Notes
An image, character, or metaphor in a poem that combines two or more radically different, often contradictory, parts; Used to represent internal conflict, impossible ideals, or fantastic hybridity; Related to surrealism and chimeric design.
Also Known As
hybrid figure composite image mythical blend metaphorical chimera Chimeric metaphor
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